The Sacrifice at Lystra

Raphael designed this Sacrifice at Lystra around 1515 as one of the tapestry cartoons for Pope Leo X's Sistine Chapel tapestries. The cartoons, depicting the Acts of the Apostles, were sent to Brussels for weaving and represent one of Raphael's most ambitious decorative programs, designed to complement Michelangelo's ceiling. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

The cartoon demonstrates Raphael's supreme command of monumental narrative composition, with classical architectural framing and dramatically gesturing figures arranged in the lateral format required by the tapestry medium.